Okay, I’ve really been thinking about it more and “queer” to me just is the best word that I can come up with to use in life and for this blog. Queer doesn’t imply gender or sexual orientation. Queer also is an adjective. It’s a modifier. That means you are never a queer (unless you would like to be). Instead, you’re a person, a human that is queer. The queer here can mean in ideology or in action. The ideology I already explained. The action, here goes…
If you’ve studied gender and sexuality, you probably learned that these are both things you do, not things you are. They describe actions or thoughts, not essence. (Remember ser vs. estar?) Gracias a Judith Butler for giving us that.
This is why I have a problem with the word lesbian. Mind you, I love women who love women. That’s not the issue. It’s just that men who love/sleep with men are called gay men. Women are called lesbians. Why do men get to have the adjective and women get the noun? Women lose their identity as women to become sexually-defined beings. Men are men with a little gay on the side. I know this probably seems nitpicky. And in the end do we really need/want labels? But I think it’s important to point, especially the inequalities embedded in terms that seem to be so widely accepted outside of and within these communities.
It is therefore, necessary to question the reasoning and logic behind “labels”. Or why is it necessary to identify with a specific box, and does this break or deter group identity/unity? I am sure this issue has lead to multiple discussions in the realm of social progression. Nonetheless, what is most important is to recognize who YOU are as a person, despite hegemonic outsiders trying to CLASSIFY your existence.
I hate labels, but think it important and neccessary to define spaces that are more conscientious of complexity.
I identify as queer, but also know that it has it’s shortcomings.
Like lesbian, it seems to come from a tradition that is at times alien to many in our communities (read: poc communities). And I am often concerned with how to connect and collect folks under a shared vision who don’t have the same access to the privileged academic spaces you or I have maneuvered in.
Just a thought.
paz.